Run hardship cases. From first notice to closed file.
Built for hardship application intake, assessment, and response. Replace spreadsheets and shared inboxes with structured case management, deadline tracking, decisions, follow-up, and a 7-year timestamped activity history — purpose-built for the Australian regulatory context.
14-day free trial · No credit card required
- Australian-hosted
- 2FA & RBAC available
- 7-year audit history
- Lender ↔ advocate workflow
The problem
Hardship work is high-stakes — and usually run on tools that aren’t built for it.
Hardship teams are expected to be consistent, timely and well-documented. That is hard when the day-to-day runs on spreadsheets, inboxes and memory.
Cases live in spreadsheets
Hardship cases are spread across spreadsheets, shared inboxes and separate lender portals. There is no single, current view of where each case stands.
Deadlines tracked by memory
Response deadlines depend on whoever remembers them. When a case goes quiet, it is easy to lose sight of — and hard to see across a whole caseload.
Records pieced together later
When an audit or an AFCA matter comes up, the history has to be reconstructed from emails, notes and documents scattered across systems.
Hand-offs lose context
Cases move between officers, teams and advocates. Notes, documents and decisions do not always move with them, so context gets lost.
How it works
One workflow, from hardship notice to resolution.
FinEase guides your team through a consistent process — while preserving room for case-by-case professional judgment. The workflow supports structured assessment without enforcing rigid, one-size-fits-all outcomes.
Intake
Hardship notices arrive from your web form, email, API or bulk import and become a structured case. The response deadline is calculated and shown from the moment a case is logged.
Assess
Officers work through a guided assessment: upload bank statements, compare declared figures against statements and HEM benchmarks, and flag customers who may need extra care.
Decide
Record the outcome — a variation, payment pause, or decline — and generate the matching letter from configurable templates. Every decision is timestamped to the case history.
Follow up
Reminders, overdue items and review dates surface in a shared follow-up queue, so cases keep moving and nothing sits silently in an inbox.
Who it’s for
One process. Two sides.
Lenders & Credit Unions
- ►Structured intake, assessment, and decision workflow with deadline visibility
- ►Bank statement parsing (8 major AU banks) and HEM benchmarks
- ►7-year timestamped audit trail — exportable for ASIC reviews and AFCA responses
- ►Letter and document templates with deadline and follow-up tracking
Financial Counsellors & Advocates
- ►Dedicated advocate portal — work cases alongside the lender, no email tennis
- ►Secure document upload and communication with full timestamped history
- ►Multi-lender case management from a single interface
- ►Exportable records for DEX reporting and grant compliance
Platform
Everything you need. End-to-end.
Case lifecycle management
Customer self-service portal
Bank statement analysis
Assessment tools
Letter & document templates
Deadline & follow-up tracking
Follow-up work queue
Secure document upload
Activity history
Security built in
Multi-tenant architecture
Outbound webhooks
Product
See your whole caseload at a glance.
One filterable view of every hardship case — status, owner, deadline and next step — so your team always knows what needs attention.
- ►Status-based workflow with an enforced state machine
- ►Automatic deadline calculation and overdue alerts
- ►Officer workload balancing and auto-assignment
- ►Bank statement upload, parsing and categorisation
- ►One-click CSV export for reporting
Comparison
Purpose-built. Not a generic CRM. Not a spreadsheet.
Spreadsheets are fragile. Generic CRMs aren’t built for hardship work. FinEase is built around the way Australian lenders and advocates actually handle cases.
| Capability | SpreadsheetsThe status quo | Generic CRMSalesforce, HubSpot, Zoho | FinEasePurpose-built for AU hardship |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardship response deadline visibility | Manual, easy to miss | Not built in | Calculated and shown automatically |
| 7-year timestamped activity history | Reconstructed after the fact | Generic activity log | Timestamped & exportable |
| Bank statement parsing & affordability comparison | Done by hand | Requires custom build | 8 major AU bank formats |
| Hardship letter & template generation | Word docs, copy-paste | Generic mail merge | Configurable hardship templates |
| Lender ↔ advocate cross-party workflow | Email back-and-forth | Single-tenant only | Built-in advocate portal |
| Australian-hosted by default | Wherever the file lives | Often US/EU hosting | Hosted in Australia |
| Time to operational value | Familiar but fragile | Months of customisation | Live in days, not months |
How we compare to the category: FinEase is built specifically for hardship application intake, assessment, and response — not time tracking, not generic loan origination, not a CRM. Purpose-built case management tools like rediCASE serve the Australian advocate market well. FinEase’s differentiator is workflow depth for hardship application management — deadline calculation, HEM benchmarks, 8-bank statement parsing, and the built-in lender↔advocate portal.
FinEase is designed to support teams working within the NCC, ASIC RG 209, and the Privacy Act 1988. It is not endorsed, approved, or certified by ASIC, AFCA, or any government body. Comparisons reflect typical out-of-the-box capability.
Proof points
“Before FinEase, our hardship team was managing applications across a shared inbox, spreadsheets, and manually updated templates. FinEase gave us a single workflow for intake, assessment, decision records, documents, and follow-up.”
Hardship Department Lead, Swoosh Finance
→One shared case record
Lenders and advocates work the same case, the same documents, and the same deadline view — no chasing status.
→Built for Australian compliance
Australian-hosted data centres, 7-year timestamped activity history, and exportable records for AFCA and ASIC reviews.
Why now
ASIC expects better. FinEase helps you deliver it.
ASIC’s REP 783 (June 2024) found a 54% increase in hardship notices and named 10 major lenders falling short. ASIC specifically criticised “cookie-cutter approaches” to hardship. The regulatory bar is rising.
Trust & security
Built for sensitive data. Every claim scoped.
Australian hosting
Customer data is hosted in Australia (Sydney). Daily encrypted backups with tested restore procedures.
Scope: All customer data in Australian data centres. No offshore replication. Sub-processor list on request.Encryption
Data encrypted in transit with TLS and at rest with industry-standard encryption. Backups encrypted with AES-256.
Scope: FinEase manages platform-layer encryption. Customers configure access and enforce 2FA.Access controls
Role-based access control with least-privilege defaults, two-factor authentication, short-lived sessions and device binding.
Scope: Customers assign roles, review access, and enforce 2FA policies.Activity history
Every action timestamped and attributed with user and source. 7-year retention with CSV export to support your audit preparation.
Scope: 7 years exceeds the standard 6-year limitation period. Customers responsible for their own retention policy compliance.Privacy by design
Designed to align with the Australian Privacy Principles, with consent handling and Australian data residency.
Scope: FinEase is an APP entity. Privacy policy available. Customers responsible for their own APP compliance.Implementation
Configurable workflows, CSV and API import to migrate from spreadsheets, and a setup measured in days — not months.
Scope: Small teams self-serve. Enterprise including security review takes weeks, not days.Pricing
Plans from $1,000/month.
14-day free trial on every plan — no credit card required. Advocate pricing available separately.
Trial
For teams evaluating a structured hardship workflow before rollout.
- ►2 users
- ►20 applications / month
- ►1 GB storage
- ►0 API keys
- ►1 form template
- ►0 webhooks
Starter
For lenders moving from spreadsheets to a structured hardship process.
Month to month · no lock-in
- ►3 users
- ►200 applications / month
- ►5 GB storage
- ►1 API key
- ►3 form templates
- ►1 webhook
Professional
For scaling teams that need advanced automation and integration coverage.
- ►7 users
- ►1,000 applications / month
- ►25 GB storage
- ►5 API keys
- ►Unlimited form templates
- ►5 webhooks
Enterprise
For banks and large institutions needing unrestricted scale and governance.
- ►Unlimited users
- ►Unlimited applications
- ►Unlimited storage
- ►Unlimited API keys
- ►Unlimited form templates
- ►Unlimited webhooks
- Structured hardship workflow
- Deadline & follow-up tracking
- Activity history & exports
- Two-factor authentication
- Hardship letter & document templates
Advocate pricing available separately — contact us for counsellor and advocate plans.
FAQ
Common questions.
No software can do that on its own. FinEase is an operations platform: it gives your team structured workflows, deadline visibility, and a timestamped activity history that support your own compliance and audit processes. Responsibility for meeting obligations under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act, ASIC guidance and AFCA's approach stays with your organisation and its advisers.
FinEase is built for Australian hardship operations and references the frameworks lenders work within — the National Credit Code, ASIC RG 209, AFCA's approach and the Australian Privacy Principles — so the workflow fits how your team already works. Letter and document templates are provided for your own legal and compliance team to review and adapt.
FinEase calculates and surfaces response deadlines from the date a hardship notice is logged, and shows overdue items in a shared follow-up queue. That gives your team deadline visibility across the whole caseload; acting on them remains your team's responsibility.
Days, not weeks. Sign up, configure your organisation details, invite your team, and start processing hardship cases. No complex onboarding or IT project required.
Yes. You can import existing cases via CSV upload, connect through our REST API, or enter them manually. We also provide a migration guide to help you transition.
Customer data is hosted in Australia (Sydney). The platform uses encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access control, two-factor authentication, daily encrypted backups, and a timestamped activity history. See the Security page for detail.
Yes. FinEase supports role-based access, case assignment, internal notes, and a full activity history so your team can collaborate without stepping on each other's work.
We currently support statements from the eight major Australian banks including CBA, NAB, Westpac, ANZ, Macquarie, Bendigo Bank, Suncorp, and Bank of Queensland. More formats are added regularly.
Yes. Our REST API is available on Professional and Enterprise plans, with CRUD operations on cases, webhook support for real-time event notifications, and documentation.
Every action is timestamped and attributed and can be exported to CSV, which supports your audit preparation and AFCA matter records. You decide what evidence your audit or matter requires.
Yes — all plans start with a 14-day free trial with full functionality. No credit card required to start.
Yes. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time. Changes take effect at the start of your next billing cycle.
No setup fees. Your first charge is your monthly subscription, billed after your 14-day trial ends.
Still have questions? Get in touch